by Jade Thorn
He tugged at his collar again. “Fuck this, we need to talk with the provost present, I’m already pushing the boundaries of what we’re allowed to say.”
Asher looked at them all. “Just what the fuck is going on here?”
“Dude, questions you should have asked before you walked up and challenged her. What kind of idiot does that without getting to know the witch first?” Ryan scowled at Asher.
There was a beat of silence, and then all of the Apex cracked up laughing, except for Asher, who turned crimson and frowned.
“Man, I can’t believe you just said that?” howled Oz.
Justin was laughing just as hard. “Projecting much, Ry?”
Even Trent had a smirk on his face. He’d been a witness to the antics of the Apex in the first months of the new year, where they went through and challenged every witch.
Nick chuckled ruefully. They had all been playing Russian Roulette with their lives, hadn’t they? He was the first to sober, and the others soon followed.
“Fuck, we could have …” said Oz quietly.
“Yeah,” said Nick. “But we didn’t. And now we have to help Mel, Dean, and Asher before it gets any more fucked up.”
“Yeah,” agreed Ryan.
“Come on then, let’s go and see the provost,” Nick suggested, and they all stood to go.
Asher looked at them incredulously. “You think she’s going to just drop everything and see you? It’ll take a week, a month before she has time for some shifters who have been here too long. Trust me, no witch takes us seriously.”
Nick put an arm across the wolf’s shoulders and dragged him along. “Well, now you know why we stay here and not one of the other academies. Provost Aer-Canticum takes us seriously. We’ve been here since before she was a student here. Justin even challenged her great-grandmother. Within reason, she always makes time for us, and we make sure that we don’t ask for it without good reason. Come on, you’ll see, it’s better here for shifters.”
“I’ll stay with Mel,” Dean offered, heading back into her room.
Together the six of them crossed the campus to the provost’s office, but she wasn’t there. Instead, the admin witch told them that she was in Provost House, the building next door. She phoned ahead to see if they could come over, and then smiled and told them to proceed.
Nick rapped on the door which was then opened with magic. With his augmented hearing, he could hear voices coming from deeper within the house.
“Come through, gentlemen,” a voice seemed to say in his ear, and he jumped. Oz laughed at him, and he bumped against the wolf as they walked through the door.
They followed the sound of voices through to the kitchen area at the back of the house. For all the years that she had been there, Nick had never been inside Provost House while it was inhabited by Provost Aer-Canticum. He took a moment to look around, noting all the changes that she had made. There weren’t many. The curtains had been replaced and the carpets had been stripped back, the timber floors polished until they gleamed. Overall, it was neat and tidy but not very personal at all. The thought made him sad for some reason.
In the kitchen they discovered the provost with the professor that Mel had studied with over the term break.
“Good afternoon, gentlemen, I trust that you remember Professor Ludwig?” she asked.
They all bowed slightly when greeting her, as was befitting a powerful witch like her. It rankled Nick, but as long as they were confined here, he needed to observe the etiquette.
“We were just talking about Melody. She has bonded another of you, yes?” asked Professor Ludwig.
Asher stepped forward before Nick could say anything. Impudent pup, he would learn that his place was far down the pecking order amongst the Apex.
“That would be me, Professor,” Asher said.
“Aah, and what kind of beast are you?”
Asher stiffened. There were polite ways of doing things, and that was not one of them. It could be due to her poor grasp of English, but Nick suspected that she was simply one of those witches who saw shifters as lesser beings. Even the provost had a sour look on her face.
“He’s an alpha wolf, Professor,” said the provost, intervening before Asher could return the insult.
“Two alphas? Then she is stronger than I had dared to hope. This is gut, yes?” She looked over the rest of them speculatively. “More of you will challenge her?”
“Possibly,” said Nick, before anyone else could intervene. “There are other factors involved.”
“She has refused you?” the professor’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline.
“No,” he started, looking helplessly at the provost. As far as he knew, the professor knew nothing of Melody’s home troubles.
“Professor, we don’t discuss these sort of things, that is between the witch and the shifter. It is up to them to decide together,” the provost said, giving him a slight shake of the head. So, the professor didn’t know then. Interesting.
The woman in question snorted. “Me, I am elemental. Beasts, I never understood. Is chalk and milk, yes?”
Mercifully, they all kept straight faces and nodded along at her mixed metaphors.
“She is strong witch, top of all her classes, and she works hard. I must tell my coven mistress. She would be gut for us. We must invite her.” The professor nodded at her own wisdom as she stood up from the kitchen table.
The provost stood with her, and the two left for the front door, conferring together for a few moments before the professor took her leave. The Provost came back into the kitchen after closing the front door firmly, and said nothing as she cleared away the teapot and cups and put the kettle on to boil again.
“Thank goddess you decided to visit. Professor Ludwig is a genius when it comes to curses, but she is not a good conversationalist, as you have witnessed.” She smiled at them and indicated that they should all take seats. Nick stood at the doorway, his arms folded across his chest, leaving the last chair for the provost who nodded her thanks. “Now, what exactly did bring you all here,” her eyes scanned them, “minus Dean?”
They all turned to Nick, but he kept his mouth shut and in turn looked at Asher. The wolf was taken back for a moment, before sitting straighter and clearing his throat.
“Ah yes, of course, Asher. I imagine that you would want answers. Well, that explains the tugging at the bonds earlier. You came very close to breaking your word, Nick,” she chided.
“My apologies, Provost, I was trying to ameliorate a difficult situation, in the end, we knew we had to bother you with this.”
She nodded and poured them all cups of dark liquid. Milk and sugar were placed on the table, along with two large packets of biscuits. Nick could smell tea in some cups, coffee in others. It seemed that the provost had excellent skills in making beverages, for all of them had been poured from the one pot.
“Well, Asher, much of what we know about Melody is conjecture based on the little that she has been able to tell us and what we have witnessed ourselves in our dealings with her. You were a little hasty in your challenge of her, I would have liked the opportunity to welcome you to the academy and speak privately with you before you accosted her, but what was done, is done.” She paused and took a sip of tea.
Asher’s face darkened at her use of language. Of course the asshat would take offence, but he had pushed his own agenda forward, so he only had himself to blame.
“Melody’s mother died when she was four. From what we surmise, her mother was murdered by her aunt who is the current coven mistress. This is, of course, conjecture only. Before she died, her mother passed on the coven’s matriarchal power to Melody, even though her own sister was alive and Melody was far too young to receive it.” the provost sipped again, watching Asher carefully.
Asher cursed under his breath as he absorbed some of the implications of what was being said.
“Melody is bound by many geasen. We have deduced three, loyalty to her coven, bonding the Apex shi
fters, and not revealing that she has geasen upon her. Her aunt was a horrible young woman when she attended here, and it seems that she has only become worse with age. The marks on Melody’s back are a result of the geasen being triggered. Breaking your bond triggered the one that is forcing Melody to bond as many strong shifters as she could.” She paused for Asher to ask questions, but he just waited.
“I suspect, although I cannot confirm this, that Melody actually has many geasen laid upon her. If they started when she was first granted the matriarchal power, then she would have been too young to resist them or to break them. We know that the more geasen that are laid upon a witch, the harder it is to break even the weakest one. So, I suspect the number constraining her to be in the hundreds.”
All of them gasped at that. Nick knew that there had to be many, but he hadn’t thought that it would be so bad.
“She has been conditioned from a young age to serve her coven in whatever capacity they deemed fit for her. Judging from the copious amounts of scarring on her body, it wasn’t just magic that was used to abuse her. There is a distinct belt buckle mark on her right hip, and a jagged cut that looks like it was made with a knife, on her left thigh.” She sighed again and drank some more tea, as though the heat of it gave her strength to continue.
“Georgia, her aunt, is a power hungry witch. The coven changed direction under her leadership, going from strength to strength, but gaining a bad reputation for poor shifter care as they did. They’ve had hundreds of shifters come to them to be bonded, as they are the strongest beast tamers in the country, but once bonded, the shifters are never heard from again.”
“Surprise inspections by the American Council and the World Council have revealed no infractions, but there were also a surprisingly small number of shifters living there, given the large amounts that passed through their doors. The coven claimed that the shifters were released to return to their packs, but the packs report they never arrived.”
Nick leant forward.
“Yes, Nick?”
“Provost, she told me just before she bonded Asher, that she’d had hundreds of shifters, and that she was unable to save them. When she talked about it, it was like she was dead, I could almost smell the pain rolling off her, and it wasn’t her injuries. Whatever happened there, she wasn’t a willing participant.”
“No,” said the provost, “I imagine she wasn’t. Melody is a kind and caring woman, she goes out of her way to help others, is accepting of everyone, and protects the weak. She also doesn’t suffer fools gladly. But for all her strength and bravado, I believe that she has been enslaved by her aunt, and that her aunt intends to take any and all of her bonded shifters from her. I suspect that is what has been happening at her coven. For her to confirm this, would be betraying her coven, and as we’ve seen, Georgia’s punishments are getting harsher and harsher.”
Asher paled. “What do you think happened to the shifters?” he asked quietly.
“I imagine they were tortured or murdered. I don’t know what purpose such a thing would serve, but there is no doubt in my mind that they are all dead. Given Melody’s quiet desperation not to bond anyone, I imagine that she has been sent here to harvest stronger shifters to survive whatever it is that they do to them. Asher, I am afraid that by challenging Melody, you have placed yourself and her in grave danger.”
“You have to break the bond. I’ll request it formally, but I can’t go back to her compound with her at the end of term,” Asher said, desperately.
“Asher, you’ve seen what happens. If we break the bond again, it will kill her. Georgia is too stupid to temper it enough to allow Melody to survive. These geasen are about keeping her weak enough to be compliant. Georgia knew that she would resist bonding you all, and she’s made it impossible for Melody to disobey.”
“Well, if it’s a case of her dying, or me, I choose her. I would be stupid not to. Then the threat to others is gone as well,” cried Asher.
Provost Aer-Canticum closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Asher, I seriously hope that it does not come to that, but if necessary, I will break the bonds between Melody and any shifter that she has before I allow her to leave these grounds with them. I have a duty of care to the shifters who come here. However, there is a workaround that we are trying. If Melody is offered a position with another coven, she is free to accept it, without it being disloyal to Bestia. It is our first rule, that a witch is free to serve whichever coven she wishes.”
“So why doesn’t she just ask one and how does that stop the geasen?”
“Because,” interrupted Nick, sick of the idiot in front of him, “that would be disloyal to her coven. If she attracts an invitation from another coven, she can accept, but she can’t seek one out, and she can’t ask for help seeking one out either. We’re reading between the lines here, but we all believe that she would accept if offered a place elsewhere, no matter where it is.”
“And,” added the provost, “the geasen would break when she joined the new coven.”
“So that’s why she’s trying to beat everyone in all of her classes. It’s not about proving herself better, it’s about escaping her coven and keeping us safe? That’s why she does nothing but study and sleep?” Asher asked, incredulously.
“That’s it in a nutshell, Asher,” replied the provost. “She’s slaving away so that she can have the opportunity to save you all, because once she’s free from her coven, the geasen will break, and she’ll be free to accept or reject whomever she wishes to. But given what I know of Melody, she would not leave you all languishing here a day longer than necessary. She is your ticket out of here, gentlemen, but only if we can help her escape her own living hell.”
Asher looked around them all, wide-eyed. “This is why you were trying to stop me from challenging her. It wasn’t about protocol, or getting in there first, or shutting out the new guy, you were protecting me, and her.”
Nick nodded. Finally, the asshole got it.
8. Melody
Conversation stopped when they entered the dining hall the next day. It was no more and no less than she’d expected. Two weeks' absence with the shifters all hanging around her cottage was bound to draw attention to her, and now the student body waited to see what the latest drama was.
The rumour mill had a dozen different versions of what had actually gone on with Asher behind closed doors, but the fact that he followed her obediently, alongside Dean, did not go unnoticed. Or uncommented on.
Shawna and her bitches were loud in their criticism of her supposed sexual habits, and Trent was called several times to leave her. He didn’t even look their way, sitting as close to Melody as he could and ignoring everyone, barring her and the rest of the Apex. Shawna had even tried to lure Asher back to her clique, but it seemed that he had finally severed whatever relationship he’d had with her.
It hurt to see Carla sitting with them, even if she didn’t participate in the harassment. Instead, her friend chanced angry glances at her, toying with a silver bracelet that Melody didn’t remember, and turning her back to Quinn who looked just as miserable. There was something going on there, but Melody had too many of her own problems to follow it up right then.
Throughout breakfast, Melody didn’t say a word. She had barely spoken since she’d emerged from her room that morning. Her answers were short and concise, and she refused to let Dean and Asher touch her. Dean continuously tried to hold her hand, whenever she wasn’t using it, and when she rested them on the table instead, he put his hand on her leg. It was a gesture that Shawna didn’t miss, and there was quite a bit of loud discussion on PDAs and the kind of sluts who didn’t know how far was too far.
Melody shrugged it all off, including Dean’s hand. Asher was more subtle. He had merely moved his chair so that his leg touched hers. She couldn’t avoid him without crawling into Dean’s lap on the other side, so she ended up gathering her breakfast into the soft roll on her plate, and walking away from them both.
Trent was instant
ly by her side, as he always was when the larger predators gave an inch of space around her. Together, they walked to class leaving the others grumbling behind them. The two dragons went back to the cottage, and the other wolves shifted and went for a run, so it was only Trent and her two bonded shifters that accompanied her to class.
When they got to the door, it was still locked, so they stood quietly together in the hallway. Trent leaned forward and looked at her closely. “You have a bit of egg near your mouth, may I?” he asked her, and she nodded. However, he was as sly as his beast. Rather than brushing it away with his thumb, or wiping it with a cloth, he leaned in and licked it from the corner of her mouth, before running his tongue lightly across her lips.
“Mm, delicious,” was all he had time to say before her bonded shifters lifted him bodily away, slamming him into the wall opposite her. His amber eyes never left hers as Dean and Asher told him off for taking liberties. The twinkle in his gaze told her that he didn’t regret it one bit, and that he would do the same again given the opportunity.
Melody couldn’t help it, she laughed at the cheeky fox, Dean and Asher whirling to look at her in consternation.
“Leave him alone. You’re only angry because you didn’t think of it first. He’s a fox, get used to him outwitting you,” she teased.
Trent smirked at her, obviously pleased with the compliment. Dean and Asher scowled, but did as she asked. For the rest of the day, however, there was always one of them between her and Trent, who constantly had a secretive smile on his face. Melody suspected she did too. It was the highlight of her day.
9. Melody
If Melody thought that the first term workload was heavy, it was nothing compared to the second. She was finally caught up in the classes that she’d missed, and up to date in her second year history class, but studying plants was making her brain shut down. She just didn’t get it, couldn’t remember all the names of the different plants, their common and uncommon usages and even the anatomical names of their parts. Petal, sepal, stem, root, they were the simple terms, but stamen, filament, anther, pistil—gah, she just couldn’t nail it down, no matter what memory method she used.